Firearms have been around a long time, and their designs have evolved greatly and continue to evolve. One aspect of this evolution is that modern firearms have become more modular. For example, many modern firearms include an accessory rail on which various devices, such as a telescopic sight, a holographic sight, a laser sight, a flashlight, etc., may be mounted. While there are many existing mounts for mounting a device on an accessory rail, these existing mounts generally suffer from several drawbacks outlined below.
Typically, when a new sight is first mounted on a firearm, the point of aim of the sight would need to be adjusted to match the point of impact of the firearm. This process is generally known as “zeroing” the sight, which can be an arduous task for most shooters. However, because different sights offer different advantages, a shooter may want to swap out the sights after zeroing. Thus, it is desirable for the sight to maintain its point of aim, or “return to zero,” despite repetitions of un-mounting and re-mounting the sight. Unfortunately, with many of the existing mounts, the point of aim of the mounted sight tends to shift between repetitions of un-mounting and re-mounting due to the over constrained clamping mechanism utilized by these mounts.
Furthermore, many of the existing mounts have either no adjustment mechanism for tuning its clamping force, use springs to compensate, or have tool actuated adjusters. A mount that does not offer clamping force adjustment may be mounted on too tightly or too loosely due to manufacturing variations in rail geometry. A mount that uses a spring to compensate for variations in rail geometry may produce soft clamping and thus may not be ideal for heavy payloads, since the mount would need a spring soft enough to be compressed by a hand-actuated lever but stiff enough to hold the mount in position under firearm recoil. A mount that requires a tool for tuning its clamping force would force the shooter to carry the correct tool for making field adjustments, thereby inconveniencing the shooter.
Embodiments of the present disclosure substantially overcome the above-discussed drawbacks of existing mounts for a mounting device on a firearm rail.